Veteran Steve Corica will take over the role of captain at Sydney FC, replacing the retiring Tony Popovic. Corica was delighted when he was announced as skipper.

"It is an honour to be captain of Sydney," said Corica.

"Tony did a fantastic job for the club and Australia and it's obviously a privilege to take over the captaincy role from him.

"With Tony having another year left on his contract, I definitely didn't expect it now," Corica added.

"It's nice though and a great privilege to lead one of the nation's biggest football clubs."

The 35-year old was excited about the challenge and looking forward to the Sky Blues charge towards finals action.

"I always try to lead by example and do my best on the field, giving it one hundred per cent all of the time and I am sure all the boys will try to do the same.

"We have had some good results and a couple of bad results," Corica continued. "If we want to challenge for the title we can't lose too many more games, especially those against the bottom teams."